A variety of connectors for mating fiber optic or electrical lines are known. One type of such connector includes a plug component and a receptacle component that are threaded together. However, many of these connector systems become inadvertently unmated during extreme vibration or shock conditions.
There have been several attempts to solve this problem. The known prior arts mainly utilize a spring loaded "bump" internal to a coupling ring or sleeve added over the plug or receptacle component. This bump is either attached to the coupling ring or "keyed" into the coupling ring so that it rotates along with the coupling ring when the components are mated and unmated. This spring loading of the bump, presses the bump downward over a serrated surface of a stationary plug component which provides some degree of resistance to freely turning the coupling ring in mating and unmating directions. However, in most cases the resistance to unmating is not strong enough to prevent the mated component halves from unmating when exposed to dynamic environments. If the spring load is increased to prevent unmating, there is an increase in wear between the plug component serration and the coupling ring bump, resulting in unreliable durability of the connector.
The present invention provides advantages over the prior art.